The present invention relates to devices for facilitating manicuring and to methods of using such devices.
Nail manicuring is an age-long nail treatment procedure including such chores as nail-cropping, nail-filing, finger-nail varnishing, nail-massaging and application of false nails over (and mostly longer than) the natural nails, and is particularly associated with, but not solely restricted to, females"" beauty science. Hitherto, nail manicuring chores have been performed with or without a support or a finger steadier for steadying fingers while the nail fixing is in progress.
During unsupported finger manicuring, all fingers of the hand needing attention are normally either stretched out or clasped together in a loose fist with the thumb either resting full length across the fore-finger or bentsubmerged under the fore-finger. The shortcoming of either of these finger positioning postures is that, due to absence of a support to steady them, the fingers can be rather shaky which results in the nail manicuring chore being less precise. This increases the occurrence of unnecessary smearing of nail-surrounding skin in the case of nail varnishing, or otherwise causes greater difficulty of applying precise nail manicuring attention exclusively to the nail area only of a particular finger.
In the case of posing the hand with outstretched fingers (and less so, perhaps, of the thumb) an additional practical difficulty is presented due to the fact that, when held in such a position, the fingers can be at an awkward angle, which, unless the nail manicuring chore is being executed by a person other than the palm owner, renders precision nail manicuring more difficult. It is further observed in this relation that leverage with or amongst the fingers is inhibited by the limited view of each nail surface and this in turn compels the palm owner to move the hand around until each nail surface is in a clearer view to the owner.
Furthermore, as the thumb nail lies on a plane which is substantially perpendicular to the one common plane in which nails of the rest of the fingers lie, the palm owner is again compelled to tilt the relevant palm to bring the thumb nail face up in order to successively manicure it, which may result in disturbing the nails already manicured. In attempting to steady finger nails and generally enhance precision in any nail manicuring chore, it is common practice for the manicurer to lay the hand palm down on a flat surface with the fingers and thumb outstretched but this is disadvantaged by the xe2x80x9cawkward anglexe2x80x9d which inhibits view of each finger""s nail area, and by the compulsion to tilt the palm for raising the thumb nail into a clearer upper view.
In fact the laying of fingers on a flat surface is one of the time-wasting rituals of current nail manicuring chores wherein, for convenience the palm owner""s thigh acts as the flat surface, in which case the palm owner will normally precede the manicuring chore with other similarly time-wasting rituals such as placing a small piece of cloth on the thigh to avoid staining the fabric of the palm owner""s skirt or trouser leg. In such nail manicuring methods, however, cloth fabric-staining accidents are very palpable occurrences, which can never be ruled out.
According with one aspect of the present invention, whose scope is defined in the appended claims, there is provided a finger locating an supporting device for facilitating manicuring, comprising a first elongated face in which are formed a plurality of recesses, the device, in use, being gripped in a hand such that at least the tip of at least one of the fingers of the hand is positioned in one of said recesses, whereby the or each finger is steadily presented for manicuring.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of manicuring using the device of the invention comprising the steps of gripping the device in the hand to be manicured with at least the end of at least one of the fingers of the hand lying in one of the recesses, and manicuring the or each finger.
Stated more specifically the invention provides a portable finger locating and supporting device for use during manicuring comprising an elongate body shaped and dimensioned to be held comfortably between the fingers and palm of one hand, with the ends of the fingers passing around a corner portion of the body which extends along the length thereof, said body having a series of spaced recesses extending around said corner portion for receiving respective fingers of the hand to locate and support the fingers separated from one another.
A device for facilitating manicuring and a method of manicuring using such a device in accordance with the invention has the advantage of saving time by making obsolete the ritual of finding a flat surface and of clothing or dressing the surface (if using the thigh as the flat surface). Associated to this, there is also no longer the chance of soiling fabric of the palm owner""s skirt or trouser leg.
In addition, when the device is gripped in the palm with the or each finger positioned in a recess, each finger nail is positioned in a manner which ensures maximum exposure of each individual finger nail, thereby necessitating only the most minimal movement. The device is also preferably sized to fit easily into a handbag or pocket.
In an advantageous development of the invention, the thumb of the hand is positioned in a recess formed in one end surface of the device such that the thumb nail is elevated in a manner which secures maximum surface area exposure of the nail involving the most minimal movement of the wrist. In that way the problem of having to tilt the hand to bring either the fingers planetary line or that of the thumb (as the case may be) to a horizontal position, is also eliminated.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the device is provided with two sets of mirror imaged recesses such that it can be used for either the left or the right hand.